It’s not worth the gamble

Wednesday

Jan 16, 2013 at 3:15 AM

And they are off an running ... It’s Beer Tax on the outside being challenged by Gas Tax on the rail ...

An unknowing observer might think it’s the 2013 running of the Belmont Tax Stakes taking place in Concord these days. As expected, Democrats are feeling their oats by filing bills to raise what are expected to be myriad taxes, as was done a few years back when they won the trifecta in Concord of the governor’s chair along with both the House and Senate.

First to make headlines was an increase in the beer tax, proposed by Reps. Charles Weed, D-Keene and Richard Eaton, D-Greenville. Then came Rep. David Campbell, D-Nashua, with a plan to siphon 12 cents per gallon more from the wallets of those who drive or otherwise depend on gasoline driven transportation.

Someone in leadership (Speaker Terie Norelli, that should be you) needs to remind Weed and Eaton that a hefty percentage of New Hampshire beer sales come from across the Granite State’s borders. As a result, raising the tax just might encourage border jumpers to stay home, and along with them the added dollars they might otherwise spend on pretzels and hi-def TVs while shopping in New Hampshire. And what’s more, since the tax is applied at the wholesale level, out-of-state drinking establishments and other distributors might think twice about the cost effectiveness of selling the Granite State brews such as Red Hook, made in the Seacoast.

Then there’s Rep. Campbell’s push to raise the gas tax over the next three years. On the surface we must admit it holds some appeal. New Hampshire has an exceedingly large number of red listed bridges — essentially like Humpty Dumpty — ready to fall down.

But the honorable representative is naive to believe that, as he told a reporter, every cent of the new money would go toward the 1,600 miles of roadway that need major work and the hundreds of state and town bridges that have been red-listed.

Under the state constitution, the gas tax is supposed to go to roads and bridges. But over time, some of that money has found its way to law enforcement and the courts under the pretext of being somehow highway related. For Campbell to believe that will somehow change is to bet all the king’s men will be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

But beyond all this criticism is the willy-nilly nature of these and other expected tax proposals.

First, such taxes are regressive. They hit those the hardest who can ill-afford them.

Second, if there are going to be proposed tax increases, they should be part of a larger picture that takes into account both overall revenues and needs that are first hashed out in public view.

And third, voters have already shown their distaste for being nitpicked to financial death. Democrats should not forget that it was their plethora of tax and fee increases when they held all the cards that led to them being swept out of office in 2010. Next, Republicans went overboard the other way with debacles like cutting the cigarette tax in hopes of making up the difference by selling more cancer sticks to the border jumpers — an experiment destined to fail from the get-go.

Somehow we doubt Granite Staters are in hurry to return to those not-so-good-old days. And if the Democratic leadership team has any smarts, neither should Speaker Norelli et al.